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Post by Sherk on Sept 24, 2017 17:17:05 GMT -5
After spending most of their life in foster care, finally they're adopted. Not visiting, not fostered, adopted. A real house in the suburbs between a large city and miles of open fields. The family they've been adopted into includes a single parent and a sibling. Both seem welcoming so far, but they're cautious. The new home might not be so permanent if the family finds out what they really are, and it seems like someone might be out to expose their true nature. ValkoinenLeukaCal was a kind, if aloof, soul. He spoke rarely, preferring to save his words for the truly important things. And when he did speak, his tone was usually crisp and held no room for arguing. Most people who encountered him would quickly write him off as rude and uncaring, but a select few knew better. One of them was his 9-year-old daughter Leah. Leah's mother and father had divorced several years back, and initially, Leah and her younger brother had went to live with her mother. But when her mother acquired a new girlfriend, that awful woman had hated Leah and did whatever she could to get her out of the house. And it worked. Leah went to live with her father and had stayed with him ever since. Her brother stayed with his mom and her new girlfriend. Cal was a little chilly, and in many ways, an imperfect father. But he loved Leah very much and the two of them were happy for several years. Their home felt empty without another child though. They needed someone else. Approval for adoption came quickly, and Cal began looking for the perfect child, and finally found them. They'd been in foster care almost their entire life, and they deserved a stable home. Social services had questioned the adoption at first, as at least fostering the kid first was more the norm, but Cal was the sort of man who went in, all or nothing. The paperwork took a while to be finalized, but now, finally, one windy day in early spring, Cal and Leah piled into the car and drove to the airport to pick up the new member of their family. Leah bounced in the backseat, extremely excited to have a new sibling. |
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Post by ValkoinenLeuka on Sept 24, 2017 18:00:52 GMT -5
Mika didn't remember much of life before foster care. He would have been too young to retain anything but the snippets that he'd only barely been able to hold on to. Certain smells, sounds, even a few movements reminded something in his muscle memory what it was like before, but that was really all he could recall. He'd actually fallen asleep on the plane ride, and he was sure that the sensation he'd known in his dream was from his first home. The smell of salt and seaweed baking in the sun. One of the stewards had come over and prodded him awake. The dream faded quickly and he sat up in his seat.
He was nervous about this.
Not just the plane's descent. That was frightening in itself, of course. He hadn't been on a plane since he was very little, and the impact of the plane striking the runway and rolling along it was gut-wrenching. His grip tightened on the armrest as the plane slowly came to a stop. There was a long wait as something happened outside the plane, then people started getting up out of there seats and flocking toward the exit. He waited quietly for the crowd to clear out before he pulled his bag out from under the seat in front of him, and he got up. He headed out, following the signs through the airport past food stalls and giftshops. The smells and conversation were overwhelming on his sensitive ears and nose. Finally, he found the elevator out, with a big warning sign that there was no going back for lost items.
No turning back indeed...
He headed forward, looking around quietly for the people who were supposed to be picking him up. He wasn't really sure what they looked like anymore. They hadn't given him a photo, they'd only shown it to him briefly before sending him off. He was still very nervous about this. Being sixteen and in the foster system, he hadn't expected a voice from far away to reach through the system and pick him. No warning, not even an introduction. "Come live with us." It was sudden. He was scared this wasn't real, or that if it was, a simple mistake would reveal he wasn't as great as they thought him to be. Well, if it didn't work, he didn't have long left in the system...
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Post by Sherk on Sept 24, 2017 18:42:31 GMT -5
Leah had made the sign herself, with cardstock and her large collection of sparkly pens. It spelled out Mika's name in large, slightly crooked but still legible, letters. She had also insisted on holding it herself, but, as she barely cleared four feet, had to be hoisted onto Cal's back to give Mika a fighting chance at seeing it.
Leah looped one arm around her father's neck and waved the poster around with the other, looking intently for the 16-year-old. "Mika!" She called. She'd seen his picture before, a bunch of times, so she'd be able to recognize him if he turned to look at the source of her yelling.
Cal, meanwhile, was just trying not to pass out from her constricting his air pipe. He decided he had enough: "Time to get down," he grunted, crouching so she could slide off.
"I think I saw him though!" Leah said, and before Cal could do anything, Leah began weaving through the throng of travelers, heading towards where she'd seen the boy.
Cal was used to Leah darting off by herself, and only called after her: "Don't get abducted!" She had a scary talent of moving quickly through large groups of people, and would be able to fetch Mika and bring him back far quicker than Cal would've been able to.
"I will!" She called back, laughing a little, and ducked around a group of German tourists. It didn't take long for her to be standing right in front of him: "Hi, are you Mika?" She held up her little poster for him to see.
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Post by ValkoinenLeuka on Sept 24, 2017 19:00:19 GMT -5
Mika turned quickly when he though he heard his name in the crowd. The voice was unfamiliar, and he rooted in place, almost afraid to keep going. Had he done something wrong? Did he drop something with his name on it? He waited a moment, unsure what to do now, when a stranger came out of the crowd. She looked a lot younger than him, but she didn't seem shy about her approach.
He heard her ask if he was... well, him over the buzz of the crowd and he gave a small nod. She had to have been the voice, right? "Yeah." He answered quietly. "Are you... um..." He tried hard to remember the last name of the family. He completely blanked, it wasn't coming to mind. He couldn't think of how else to finish the sentence. He couldn't ask if she was his sister... That was just sort of odd. But that she knew his name and was able to put it to his face, she had to have been from the new family.
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Post by Sherk on Sept 24, 2017 19:37:46 GMT -5
"Yup, I'm Leah!" She puffed out her stomach importantly, and sized up the teen. He seemed pretty nervous, but, to be honest, she didn't blame him. "Dad's waiting, he's over..." she turned in a circle, hemming a bit, "there!" She pointed towards the big windows on the nearest wall. She'd caught a glimpse of her tall, towheaded father when the crowd parted just a moment. Mika might be able to see him regardless, as he was a fair bit taller than her. "C'mon!" She urged, taking a few steps towards Cal while looking over her shoulder at Mika.
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Post by ValkoinenLeuka on Sept 30, 2017 15:58:57 GMT -5
(Sorry I've been sick and stuck between work and taking care of the puppy)
Mika turned his head, tracking her as she moved to the edge of the crowd. He saw the man standing off to the side where she was headed and he hesitated a bit, still trying to wrap his head around this. He had a new family... and it was these two people. If everything went well, he'd be living with them for the next few years. And if it didn't... maybe he could just slip out of the human system for a while? He wouldn't have too long before the final decision was in, a week or two at most before they decided if they wanted to really keep him...
He began to follow slowly, walking carefully to avoid bumping into anyone passing by him. It took a minute or two to catch up to them. He stopped a few feet away, looking at them quietly. He couldn't find the words he knew he needed to say... Hello, thank you, any of that? None of it came forward. He was too nervous about this to really realize that he'd been standing there long enough for his silence to be unusual.
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